The Biden administration is urging the Supreme Court to turn away a petition calling for more analysis of how a major offshore wind project off Massachusetts could affect an endangered whale.
The Bay State group Nantucket Residents Against Turbines has claimed in its appeal to the high court that federal agencies failed to account for the cumulative effects of offshore wind development planned on the East Coast would affect the survival of the North Atlantic right whale when it approved Vineyard Wind 1.
In a brief to the court last week, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the Supreme Court should not consider the case because the group had not raised the issue before two lower courts in its lawsuit over the NOAA Fisheries and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management analysis of the project.
Challengers claimed they had mentioned their concerns about the scope of the 2021 biological opinion as part of their appeal of a district court ruling, said Prelogar in a brief filed Dec. 10.
